Fun with beads

When I was looking through the Just CrossStitch 2014 Halloween issue, I came across Ghostly Mandala by Ink Circles and my first thought was that it would look so cool stitched with beads. I contacted Tracy, the designer, to get the actual number of stitches so I would know how many beads to order (5145, if you're interested), placed and received an order for the beads and some black floss from 123Stitch, pulled a piece of PTP Mire Cashel linen from my stash and I was ready to go!

Here's a picture of a small start, that shows the design:

And here it is as of this past Saturday:

The beads look black in these pictures, but they are actually called Rainbow; the colors show up a bit better in this picture:

I've now used just over one full pack of the beads (1000/pack), so I must be about one-fifth of the way done. I'm still working on a model, though, so it will be a while before I finish this one; it makes a nice break now and then from the model to play with beads.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!